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Press photographer wins award for last image of Savile

A regional press photographer has won an award for an image of serial sex attacker Jimmy Savile taken four days before his death.

Simon Hulme, from the Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post, won the Portraits category in the Press Photographer’s Year 2013 awards for the image of Saville, which was his final portrait session before his death in October 2011.

The competition showcases the best press photography from 2011 and 2012 used by the UK news media and Simon beat off competition from photographers across the world, who submitted 12,500 photographs to the awards.

Simon took the photo of the now disgraced DJ and presenter at his flat in Roundhay in Leeds for an article used in both regional dailies and the photo has since been syndicated, being used widely by media organisations.

Following Savile’s death, scores of allegations of sexual abuse against children and vulnerable adults came to light and Simon said he thought this was why it had failed to win a prize at previous awards he had entered it into.

He said: “The more the allegations grew and grew, nobody wanted to touch the picture but luckily the Press Photographer’s Year has recognised it. I am happy to have won it.

“I was out on a job in Leeds and I was asked to get a picture of him in his flat. He was very frail and you could tell he was very poorly.

“He always seemed alright and you don’t think anything of it but there had always been these rumours about him being sinister.

“I just took his photo and walked away. Then everyone said ‘You were the last person to take his photo.'”

A selection of 150 images selected by the jury, including those taken by 18 prize-winners, will be on display at an exhibition in the Lyttelton foyer of the National Theatre on London’s South Bank from 6th July to 31st August 2013.

The full results can be seen here.

3 comments

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  • July 3, 2013 at 5:15 pm
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    Stunning picture and Simon well deserves the win. Some of the best photographers in UK newspapers work in Leeds. Fact.

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  • July 4, 2013 at 9:22 am
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    A great picture by a great photographer – and proof, yet again, of the talent that still exists in the regional press. If only the people who run it had a fraction of that ambition and attainment.

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